The summer of 2022 was the hottest in Europe's history as the continent experienced record-shattering heat waves and droughts, the European Commission's satellite monitor said on Thursday, 8 September.
The average temperature from June to August this summer was 0.4 degress Celsius hotter than last year’s summer, according to the service funded by the European Union, The Independent reported.
On 14 July, Portugal's Pinhao recorded temperatures as high as 47 degrees Celsius.
Recently, scientists released images of Europe from space that show how arid the landscape has become in what may be the region's worst drought in 500 years.
On 22 August, the European Commission's Global Drought Observatory published a report that warned that in the first ten days of the month, 47 percent of all of Europe was under drought warning conditions, with the hazard becoming increasingly severe in countries including Italy, Spain, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom.
Continent Grappled With Three Heat Waves
"An intense series of heatwaves across Europe paired with unusually dry conditions, have led to a summer of extremes with records in terms of temperature, drought and fire activity in many parts of Europe, affecting society and nature in various ways,” senior scientist for the Copernicus Climate Change Service, Freja Vamborg, told The Independent.
Between June and August, the continent experienced three heatwaves. The heatwaves and droughts grabbed headlines.
In fact, it was so hot that it caused train tracks to bend and airport runways to melt. Scientists have warned that if global warming is allowed to continue unabated, then summers in Europe will be marked by more extreme heat, droughts and wildfires.
(With inputs from The Independent.)
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